Tableaus
by UnspokenPromises
Summary: AU where Molly really does get over Sherlock, she and Tom don't break up and they end up spending their whole lives together. A sequence of 221b(-ish) ficlets snapshotting their life together. (And of course, I couldn't resist another Christmas fic.) Molly/Tom – for challenge 15 in Let's Write Sherlock on tumblr. I may update with additions sporadically - they've grown on me.
1. Doppelganger

"Sherlock! You forgot your scarf!" Molly yelled as she turned left out of St. Barts and raced after the tall man with the dark curls and coat.

White coat flapping behind her and with a bundle of "sorry"s sent ahead she raced down the street. She was really glad that he hadn't just gotten a cab like he usually did, or she'd just have looked extra silly.

"Thank God I caught up with you Sherlock," Molly panted, bent double trying to catch her breath. "It's cold ou- Oh!" The man turned around to reveal a slightly perturbed face sat atop a greenish scarf.

Molly blushed, panicked. "I'm so sorry, I, er, thought you were someone else."

"I guessed that." The face grinned. "But you're right, it _is_ cold out. Fancy a coffee? You must be freezing in just that jacket."

Molly glanced down at her attire and grimaced. "Yeah, coffee sounds good."

"I think there's a Starbucks just around the corner."

"Thanks, and again, I'm really sorry," she replied, using the short walk to fold up the scarf and putting it inside one of her lab coat's advantageously spacious pockets.

"Not a problem. I didn't catch your name."

"Molly."

"Tom."

He held the door for her as they walked into the warmth of the Starbucks.

"What can I get for you today?" asked the smiling barista.


	2. Road Trip

"I said I'd pick you up from work," Tom yelled through from the sitting room as he heard the lock click.

Molly dumped her stuff on the arm of the sofa and pecked him on the cheek. "Well I decided to get the afternoon off to pack, because you can be _sooo _forgetful sometimes." She tweaked his nose lovingly.

Tom raised his eyebrows into a smirk as a little squeal came from the bathroom. "You remembered to pack the toothbrushes already!"

"Well yeah, I'm not _that _useless!"

Four hours later, the couple stopped their car outside a Carrefour. Molly got out, but her hands flew to her head in a panic as she quickly realised what she had forgotten.

"Shit, I haven't changed any money!"

Two €10 notes and a Snickers bar appeared from either side and waved in front of her eyes.

"Voulez-vous manger avec moi ce soir, mademoiselle?"

Molly took the offered arm. "Oui monsieur!"

They grinned, and walked towards the shop, arm in arm, both secretly grateful that they'd had to keep up their hated French through to O-Levels.

"I always tell you that you underestimate me," Tom said, half an hour, a pot noodle each and a whole packet of Oreos later.

Molly rested her head on his shoulder. "Well you know what you are? You're brilliant."


	3. Good News

The return of the menu of a Glee box set lit the room with an explosion of sound. Tom's legs hung off the edge of Molly's small sofa, his head in Molly's lap. Molly's legs, by comparison, rested on the coffee table, where they had displaced the DVD case two hours previously.

Tom yawned as he switched off the TV. The clock read 1:47a.m.

"Can we go to bed now, darling?" He looked up at Molly. Her face was set with an unfathomable expression. "Is something wrong?"

"No, don't worry. It's fine. I was just thinking."

"Sometimes I worry that you think too much. It makes you worry and then I worry about you worrying."

Molly sighed. "There's something I've got to tell you."

Tom could hear Toby snoring out in the kitchen as the comfortable stillness of the room was replaced by thin, wavering strings of tension.

"Tom, I'm pregnant."

He let out a breath he hadn't noticed he'd been holding.

"We're having a… baby?!"

"Yes Tom. I'm pregnant and we're going to be parents."

"We're going to be parents!"

Toby, evidently as startled as Molly by Tom's reaction, raced across the room and leapt onto him.

"Yes, dear, but shush." Molly whispered with excitement and a tinge of exasperation. "Don't wake the neighbours about it though. It's 2a.m.; you know how they get."

"But we're having a baby!"


	4. Christmas Morning

Molly drew the curtains closed on December 24th and filled her children's stockings with the hastily wrapped parcels. So far, it had been a snowless December, and Molly almost wished it _would_ snow, if only so she could send the three of them out to build snowmen. Three of course included the overgrown child that was her husband.

Later, she lay awake in her bed, reflecting on the gaudily tinselled tree, the colourful presents, the chocolate calendars. Once upon a time, she might've considered going to church at midnight just to escape the lonely silence. But now this silence had been filled with the gentle breathing of the man sleeping beside her and she knew she would wake up to the sound of her two children squealing with delight...

"Mummy, mummy! Santa Claus has been!"

"Dada, please can I open my presents now?"

Molly rolled over. Her alarm clock read 5:30. Beside her, a blearly-eyed Tom let out a yawn.

"Ror, Georgie, please go back to bed."

Aurora pouted at her dad, while George made puppy eyes. "Mummy?" she pleaded.

"You heard your dad, go back to sleep."

"But mum…." Aurora continued to whinge.

"Fine," said Tom, who had finally given in to his son's silent plea. "One present each. But then you really have to go back to bed."


End file.
